“Brand? Oh my God, Brand?” a woman calls out in the rasp of a three-pack-a-day smoker.

The rasp’s owner bursts out of the town house, her welcoming smile swiftly rearranging itself into a dangerous frown. She stands over six feet tall with the muscular build of a gal who hauls UPS packages for a living. A Valkyrie in ripped jeans. I can see how she and Brand made a stormy physical match, if not a magical one.

She clutches, of all things, the knitted arm of a man’s sweater, the rest of the garment trailing beside her. The sweater looks to be nearly finished. A welcome-back gift for Brand? She also clutches a ball of homely gray yarn and a pair of lethal-looking steel knitting needles.

A dazed look films her eyes, as if Brand’s voice compelled her out the door before she had the presence of mind to set her knitting down.

She looks at him, at me, at him.

“Who the fuck is she?”

“Hi, there.” I wave. “Pleased to meet you, too.”

“Abby, this is Barb,” Brand says.

“Brand and Barb. Sweet. You two sound like a nineteen-forties horse opera in black and white. Starring John Wayne, say, and Barbara Stanwyck.”

They both look at me–he amused, she outraged–and say in unison just like a longtime couple would, “What?”

Brand laughs, his easy merriment a little strained. “You see, Barb? Abby’s cool. She gave me a ride all the way from Sacramento.”

“Oh, I see. I see, all right.” Barb fixes her furious eyes on him as if she could bend him to her will. He stands where he stands, unmoving. Nope, she’s got no power. No power over him, anyway.

She steps between us and swivels to face me, looming over me. She’s got a good five inches on me, and I have to look up. I hate having to look up at lunatics.

“Brand is staying with me.” Gripping the knitting needles in her fist, she viciously jabs the tips against my breastbone, hard.

Oh, man! Is she trying to kill me? With knitting needles? The tips hurt enough to have punctured my skin, pierced flesh, dented bone. I jump back and glance down, expecting wounds and blood, but glimpse only a pair of angry red spots above the scoop neck of my tank top.

The Garden of Abracadabra, Volume 1 of the Abracadabra Series (Bast Books)is onNook and Kindle with a print edition planned for late 2013.

“So refreshing. . . .This is Stephanie Plum in the world of Harry Potter”

This just in from Goodreads!Alan writes: “I loved the writing style and am hungry for more.:D”Fun and Enjoyable Urban Fantasy January 12, 2012
By D. Pflaster
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a very entertaining novel- sort of a down-to-earth Harry Potter with a modern adult woman in the lead. Even as Abby has to deal with mundane concerns like college and running the apartment complex she works at, she is surrounded by supernatural elements and mysteries that she is more than capable of taking on. Although this book is just the first in a series, it ties up the first “episode” while still leaving some story threads for upcoming books. I’m looking forward to finding out more.

New!On a budget these days? Who isn’t!

The Garden of Abracadabra, Volume 1 of the Abracadabra Series is also available as The Garden of Abracadabra Trilogy so you can read the Omnibus Edition at your leisure in affordable installments.

In Book I, Life’s Journey, Abby arrives in Berkeley, filled with hope and promise, hoping to land a new job and start magic college, when she stumbles upon a supernatural multiple murder scene. On Nook and Kindle.

In Book 2, In Dark Woods, Abby is drawn into a dangerous murder investigation and torn between three men, Daniel Stern, her ex-fiance, Jack Kovac, an enigmatic FBI agent, and Prince Alastor, a potent supernatural man who lives in the penthouse. On Nook and Kindle.

In Book 3: The Right Road,Abby uncovers ancient supernatural secrets behind the murders and faces dangers and challenges ahead. On Nook and Kindle.

From the author of Summer of Love, A Time Travel (a Philip K. Dick Award finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book) on Nook and Kindle, and The Gilded Age, A Time Travel (a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book) on Kindle and Nook.